Marvel Insists There’s No Plans to Recast T’Challa in the MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has already internally dealt with the sad passing of Chadwick Boseman by having Letitia Wright’s Shuri inherit the superheroic mantle of Black Panther from T’Challa in Wakanda Forever. But ever since Boseman’s death, and in spite of this, there have been persistent discussions over whether or not Marvel could, or even should, resurrect the character with a new actor stepping into Boseman’s shoes. But despite the latest bevy of reports and claims that such a possibility is on the table, for now Marvel Studios is continuing to push back.

It was recently alleged by reporter Jeff Sneider that Marvel has potentially been auditioning actors to play T’Challa (or perhaps more specifically, at the height of the MCU multiverse storyline the films and shows are in now, presumably a version of T’Challa) in future Black Panther projects—possibly for appearances in crossovers like the upcoming Avengers duology Doomsday and Secret Wars, or something like the nebulously upcoming Black Panther 3. But, speaking to Comicbook.com ahead of the release of Captain America: Brave New World this month, Marvel Studios VP Nate Moore was a bit more firmly against any plans being in the works.

“The truth is, there’s no truth to those rumors. Never say never to anything, we haven’t really had a lot of creative conversations with [director] Ryan Coogler yet, because he’s finishing his film Sinners, which comes out this year,” Moore clarified. “We’ll get into it later this year, but everything you read online is not true, if for no other reason than we just haven’t started.”

While of course, things might change, it would seem for now at least that T’Challa will remain untouched in the MCU. After all, Moore largely deflects to the fact that work on Black Panther 3 has yet to formally begin at this point in time, rather than definitively stating that the film will not involve some version of T’Challa. But recent reports are far from the first time the studio has had to grapple with talk of potentially recasting T’Challa after Boseman’s death nearly five years ago—and this latest insistence is probably not going to stop those discussions any time soon.

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